Pancakes
Yawning, Dom entered the kitchen - and rolled his eyes. She was making Billy pancakes. Dom couldn't suppress an amused smile. Billy didn't even like pancakes, at least not for breakfast. All he usually had was a cup of coffee, or porridge if he was hung over.

Dom had known the girl forever, had been really excited when she told him that she'd visit him in New Zealand. That excitement had lasted approximately until ten minutes after he had introduced her to Billy and she had apparently decided that Billy was the love of her life. Now it was more of a mild annoyance, although Dom couldn't help but find it hilarious sometimes, because Billy was blissfully unaware. He usually was, he genuinely did not understand his own appeal, a fact that Dom found incredibly cute. After all, it had taken Dom six months to get Billy to see that Dom's flirting was not just a hobbit thing, or a friends thing.

Now she was in Dom's kitchen, making breakfast for the man who had spent this and many other nights in Dom's bed. But Dom was not going to be the one to enlighten her - he liked pancakes, after all.

Kisses
Dom had not really given Billy any choice. He had been determined to have Billy right from the start, and have him he did.

The first time had been on set, against the back of a trailer, a quick press of lips against lips, a whispered apology: "Sorry, you just looked so damn pretty, couldn't help myself." Billy had looked at him wide-eyed but had only nodded. Dom caught him touching his lips with curious fingers before they returned to the set. He had smiled and made sure to fall asleep with his head on Billy's shoulder between takes.

The second time they had been slightly tipsy in the back of a cab, much less innocent, and Dom had taken Billy home and made him fuck him. Billy had seemed surprised by his own body's reaction, but afterwards he had been the one to kiss Dom, dry lips against Dom's forehead, arms holding Dom tightly and not letting go even as Billy fell asleep in Dom's bed. After that there had been no use in counting.

The last time had been in Mexico, clinging to each other in a dingy bathroom at the airport before Dom's flight back to L.A., Billy's tears salty on Dom's tongue, another whispered apology: "Sorry, I'm a mess right now. You go, have a proper life. I'll see you 'round." Billy had shaken his head stubbornly, unbelieving, but Dom had refused to answer his phone until Elijah told him that Billy had started seeing a dancer back home. Then he had called Billy from Hawaii, heard the quiet happiness in his voice and made him laugh.

Afterwards, Dom had pressed a hand to his mouth and tried to remember that it had not been Billy's choice. He booked a flight home the next day.

Outsider
Sometimes Orlando hated them. Hated them for being so bloody together, so obviously made for each other. Most of the time he felt bad for his spite. They were his mates, after all, and you were supposed to be happy for your friends' happiness. Except that he couldn't quite shut up that tiny, bitter voice in his head, whispering, taunting. He had met Billy before Dom did, after all. By any right it should have been his, this beautiful friendship, this perfect bloody love.

But the moment Billy had entered the pub that first night, pulling Dom along and introducing him to Orlando with that wide, happy smile, that look of almost dazed amazement in his eyes, it had been clear to Orlando, if not to anyone else at that point, that Billy was Dom's now and the other way around. Probably always had been, dreamed up by some fanciful deity even before they were born. Well, that deity obviously hated Orlando, forcing him to watch the Billy-and-Dom-fall-in-love show from a seat in front row.

It was enough to drive anyone mad, so Orlando did whatever he could to take his mind off the shared jokes, the casual touches, the drunken semi-public kisses. Which explained why he was taken completely by surprise when, at the end of another long night at the pub, Dom suddenly pushed him into the cab taking him and Billy back to their place, causing Orlando to literally fall into Billy's arms. Any questions Orlando might have had at that point were answered by Billy's lips on his and Dom's hands around his middle.

Sometimes Orlando hated them. Hated them for having each other while he had no one. But sometimes, when they let him in, he loved them, too.